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Monday, February 6, 2017

Donald Trump–If Anyone Doubted The Revolution, Sorry, It Is Here

Donald Trump’s advisers have advised him to pull in his horns. The bull is
always killed in a bullfight. Better to feint, dodge, and evade like all
politicians. ‘No’, says he. The time for that is over.

Trump’s cabinet, family, and nexus of advisers may have some success in
taming the Beast, pulling him in from the political margins, and into the
mainstream; but good luck. The man is more than a ‘maverick’, the term applied
to the most old-fashioned conservative politician still on the public stage –
McCain.

The Beast is of a different order, far different than so-called outsiders’
like Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter who, although from potentially populist roots,
were as elitist and Inside-the-Beltway as any politician who aspired to high
office. Donald Trump is an American of the 21st Century. No longer rural,
basic, family-oriented, simple, and essential; but high-tech, image-driven,
and glitzy popular.

Anyone who thinks America is still Bolivar, Ohio or Ames, Iowa is just
whistlin’ Dixie. The America of Donald Trump is Twitter, social media, image,
posturing, melodrama, and stage.

The talk shows, ‘thoughtful’ editorial commentaries, intellectual musings on
the nature of governance provided by Park Avenue, Beacon Hill, Rittenhouse
Square, and Georgetown are things of the past.

Donald Trump represents two very different but complementary worlds. First,
the people – Ronald Reagan’s people who feel alienated, dismissed, and
marginalized by the politics of progressive ‘inclusion’ and compromise. Second,
those rebels against the Washington Establishment who finally can, once and for
all, throw off, dismiss, and consign to the dustbin faded progressive ideals of
compromise, collaboration, and harmony.

President Trump’s first months have been, in the eyes of his opponents,
antagonistic, divisive, and counter-productive. He needs to rein in his
instinctive reactions, opponents say and repudiate the legacy of his previous
incarnation, child of Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the mean streets of New York –
and to become more ‘presidential – temperate, careful, and judicious. Yet the
Beast cannot and should not be tamed. Like asking a leopard to change his spots; or a wolf to be less predatory.

The people of America who voted for Trump did not vote for a rebel a la
McCain. They voted for a revolutionary who would not just challenge received
progressive political wisdom, but the socio-cultural dominance of the Washington
elite and the Eastern Establishment.

What does this mean? It means that Donald Trump will not only challenge
traditional liberal Democrat policies and GOP old-guard
Rockefeller-Hoover-Reagan-Bush sentiments, but will strike off in entirely
unexpected but welcome directions.

Populism is not merely the expression of native convictions of religious
righteousness, secular justice, and moral authority; but a vindication of
popular culture.

Of course Trumpists disregard the ‘truth’, ‘objective’ reality, and
the considerations of pundits and academics; but what is not appreciated or
understood is the cultural expression of populism – the embrace of Beyoncé, Lady
Gaga, and the Kardashians. Americans have never believed or trusted Bill
Moyers, MSNBC, the New York Times, or the Washington Post; and
have preferred their news live, viral, hot, and subjective.

No one should be surprised at Trump’s executive orders, his impromptu tweets
and interviews, or his off-the-cuff comments about foreign and domestic
affairs. That is who he is and whom the American people selected as President.
His policies are firm, established, and doctrinaire.

“Oops”, say his old-line critics. “Shouldn’t have said that”; breach of
protocol and diplomacy.

In an interview on Fox News, President Trump acknowledged a moral
parity. ‘The Russians are killers; but so are we’, he said referring to a
reality that most Americans disingenuously credulous about our moral
exceptionalism refuse to accept.

How un-presidential, how provocative, how incendiary, shouted his critics. Yet, of course the United States has done its best to
destabilize if not overthrow foreign governments. How many times, after all did
we attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro and Miguel Allende?

A breath of fresh air in Washington. A dismissal of cant, evasion, nicety, and prevarication. Trump supporters like his stance on Iran, North Korea, ISIS, Islamic terrorism, and the regimes which support and sponsor
both. They consider Black Live Matter attacks on the police untoward, the cries for inclusiveness and diversity exaggerated and divisive, and the insistence on 'choice' and limiting religious expression wrong and immoral. They are not timid in expressing their
convictions and want to see a President who is no different.

Yes, there have been histrionics and hyperbole. Yes Trump continues unnecessarily long in campaign mode; and yes a greater temperance in his public
statements might be advisable.

Why go so provocatively public? There is no
reason to inflame the rhetoric and invite claims of xenophobia. Why not cease the incendiary rhetoric and get down to
business?

Because Donald Trump is a child of Hollywood, Las Vegas, and New
York; and so be it.

Trump adds an important dimension to the Reagan image – a total disdain for
politics and a total disregard for how his statements are received by his
opponents. He is unabashedly masculine, never shy about his ambition or
no-holds-barred business practices, and absolutely convinced of his rightness.

A la McLuhan his personality is the message; and his
supporters know that regardless of his unfamiliarity with Washington and the
likely missteps he will take in the public and international arenas, America
needs a blunt, forceful, and determined leader.

His ‘lies’ are so obvious that none of his partisans take them seriously.
They are more astute than the most rigorously academic post-modernist and can
easily deconstruct his ‘texts’ . The man, his image, and his personality are
the message No one goes to Trump rallies to hear policy or a long list of
facts. They go to hear bombast, slights, insults, catty innuendos, and
unmitigated angry passion.

Trump’s popularity is a result of the felicitous juncture of voter
frustration; Americans’ ingrained and innate love of Hollywood stardom,
celebrity, and outsized personality; Trump’s own background in Hollywood and the
mean streets of finance and real estate; and the incessant media demand for
outrageous stories.

The election has nothing to do with governance, public
policy, or international relations. Trump has revolutionized politics more than
any other candidate in the past. Ronald Reagan was revolutionary in his own
right and his policies changed forever the way government does business; but
Trump is anarchic.

What is far more revolutionary is the total dismissal of the old, established
cultural powers that be. Trump has no time let alone respect for the
established media, political pundits, think tanks, or received wisdom. His is
an administration of social media, big data, and universal populism. He is a
child – despite his age – of the new, plugged-in, cybernetic, subjective, viral
New Age; and the old guard are flummoxed. They have no idea what’s happening
and persistently try to draw the Republic back to truth, veracity, intellectual
mediation, and reasonableness.

The people and their President are having nothing of it. Not only have
politics changed but the very social dynamics of the country. America is no
longer the republic of agrarianism and respect and reverence for Anglo-Saxon
patrimony.

Donald Trump’s revolution has only partly to do with national and
geo-politics. It’s true dynamics are cultural. Trump and his populist
generation are new wave activists. They care little for vetted, authoritarian
facts and place their bets on subjective optimism and good, old-fashioned
patriotism.
Donald Trump is not going away any time soon; and even if he did, his
revolution would continue.

The election is long past. Donald Trump won; and his cultural populist revolution
is just beginning.